In 1955, the federal government conducted a test evacuation of 1,500 government employees from Washington, D.C. They were taken to a top-secret site below Raven Rock Mountain, west of Emmitsburg just north of the Mason Dixon Line in Adams County, Pennsylvania. From this secret complex, the employees ran their part of the government for days, showing that Site R could operate as a back-up Pentagon in case of emergency.

These tests were conducted annually and sometimes revealed shortcomings. During the drill the following year, the president’s car was caught behind a slow-moving farm truck on the Catoctin Mountain roads. This convinced officials that the president needed to be taken from Washington to safety by air in a helicopter.

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